Microplastics posted:

I'm gonna ask here in the UK politics thread because gently caress you that's why.

Why does twitter load in Firefox but not Chrome? I've consistently got the very helpful "Something went wrong" error message on every single tweet in the past week or so on Chrome, but it's completely fine in Firefox. I'm logged out of twitter in both (incidentally I can't log in to twitter on Chrome because "Something went wrong")

Private Speech posted:

Speaking of utility companies, how often do people send in meter readings? It's been a while since I sent mine in (10 months according to an angry email I just got today from e.on) but since I don't have access to the meter myself (have to get landlord to come around and let me in since it's in a neighbouring property technically) it's bit of a hassle to do.

I should be able to cover even a sizable bill if needed so I'm not too worried about the "back-payment protection" which honestly sounds a bit dodgy to rely on anyway.

e: It's in my neighbours bike shed. I could ask them but last time I did they didn't want to let me in.

Mebh posted:

I mean, most of us were younger and didn't have the experience to do anything but believe that they were offering good things, so you vote for the good things! Hindsight being 20/20 and all it's easy to say they were obviously poo poo.

To the more politically experienced folks at the time in the thread, was it that obvious before the GE that they were full of poo poo? I remember political satire at the time slamming the Tories and Brown a lot (hislop calling him a barnacle repeatedly) and taking the piss out of the lib Dems, but not much else. They absolutely went all in on how sensible and good the coalition was.

crispix posted:

wasn't the iron chancellor gordon brown's nickname?

quote:

A group of anonymous pro-Israel digital vigilantes which claims to surveil supporters of Palestine could be exaggerating the sophistication of its activities in order to make people scared, Novara Media can reveal.

Shirion Collective, a self-described “private Jewish surveillance force”, stated in a post on X/Twitter on 13 February that it was looking for “volunteers willing to wear keffiyehs and walk in” pro-Palestine demonstrations in seven major cities on 17 February as part of “Operation Global Insight”, an initiative “to uphold Western values and safeguard Israel and the Jewish people”.

etc

keep punching joe posted:

Watching that Adam Curtis / Martin Michael Sheen drama 'The Way' and gotta say, it's pretty terrible.

I do like The Welsh Catcher though, driving around border towns with a big zoo cage full of Welsh people on the bed of his truck.

ThomasPaine posted:

Galloway is a baffling politician to me. Like maybe 60% his takes are actually very on point, but the remainder are absolute horseshit. He seems generally alright on foreign policy and economics but dear god he can be pretty reactionary socially and the gleeful transphobia is grim. I don't know how much of this is actually what he genuinely believes and how much is him actively playing to religious conservatives in his constituency, but I guess that's besides the point. I do think he's a narcissist, and he's clearly primarily interested in George Galloway first and foremost.

Still, many problematic issues aside, he's consistently been good on Palestine and he's positioning himself as a left-wing populist, so if nothing else it'll be good to have someone in the commons actually calling the centrists out, and it's nice to see the major parties losing their minds about him. I'm interested to see how things play out.

Dabir posted:

Our Nige's wife is German, isn't she

OwlFancier posted:

If the best a politician can muster is "I support puppies and kittens not being sad" then what are they even for? Do I need politicians to tell me they don't like puppies and kittens being sad? Can we get labour to support bringing israel to the ICC if we point out they're bombing puppies and kittens as well?

OwlFancier posted:

Given the rainbow washing approach establishing the pattern I suspect the response would be "oh you don't like us bombing the puppies well hamas personally invented XL bullies to eat western children yet you support them????"

ThomasPaine posted:

I remember reading Caroline Lucas' book on becoming an MP and she goes into the various weird ways the commons functions day to day and I certainly don't envy him. Even things like office allocation are done in a way that very much benefits members of the bigger parties and particularly those with the right friends. She did alright because I guess as a polite Green she probably wasn't really perceived as a threat and can be quite charming, but I imagine that Georgy, being detested by almost every MP in there, is going to be working from a stationary cupboard in the bowels of the palace, probably opposite that one remote toilet the cleaners only remember about every other month.

quote:

Two soldiers have been sentenced to 20 days in military prison after being caught warming up hot dogs in a military kitchen on Shabbat, according to a KAN11 report on Friday.

The pair were caught by a third soldier who entered the kitchen and saw them committing the act.

They were summoned to trial, where they initially denied the charges but later confessed and were sentenced to at least 20 days in prison.

Guavanaut posted:

Bring back those 90s diesel Mercedes that will run on chip fat and rubbing alcohol too.

fuctifino posted:

Apparently 'Kate Middleton' has been 'seen'!



Please don't ask what's happening on the underside of the car with those spare tyres, nor why this is the best picture a pap was able to get given the technology of today.

GOD SAVE OUR FUTURE QUEEN!

smellmycheese posted:

quote:

Robert of St. Albans (died 1187)[1] was an English templar knight who converted to Islam from Christianity.[2] In 1187, he led an army for Saladin[3] against the Crusaders during the Battle of Hattin as well as the reconquest of Jerusalem,[4] which was at the time under the control of the Franks.[5]

Robert eventually married the niece of Saladin,[6] but was killed shortly after outside Jerusalem.[7]

Robert's conversion to Islam caused significant dismay among the Christians and sparked ill-will toward the Knights Templar in general.[8]

Tesseraction posted:

Remember hearing him talk to mum on the phone like a year ago ranting about how a family in-law was a "capitalist pig" and hooting to myself

big scary monsters posted:

We're like a decade from the Poles complaining about all those damned Brits coming over there, taking their jobs, opening their weird fish and chip shops, and not even learning the language.

quote:

TalkTV to close down television channel and go online only
Move announced by News UK venture comes weeks after Piers Morgan left his daily show on channel

kingturnip posted:

Well, it's at least 95% of the reason that governments agree to give up control over these things in the first place.
As with most things, a portion of the blame should be held by the journalists who uncritically report on these things, since it allows the governments' narratives of "this is to ensure that local issues can be prioritised; they don't need Whitehall making their decisions" to go unchallenged.

quote:

The politics of setting the Budget
...

Legal requirements
The provisions of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 (LGFA 1992) set out what the council has to base its budget calculations upon, and require the council to set a balance budget with regard to the advice of its Chief Finance Officer (section 151). The setting of the budget is a function reserved to full Council, who will consider the draft budget which has been prepared by the Executive (in a Leader and Cabinet or Elected Mayor model). Once the budget has been agreed by full Council the Executive cannot make any decisions which conflict with it, although virements and year-in-year changes can be made in accordance with the council's financial regulations.

Section 30(6) LGFA 1992 provides that the council has got to set its budget before 11 March in the financial year preceding the one in respect of which the budget is set, although failure to set a budget within the deadline does not in itself invalidate that budget. Such delay, however, may have significant financial administrative and legal implications, including potentially an individual liability for those members who contributed to the failure to set the budget. If a budget is not set, s.66 LGFA 1992 provides that the failure or delay to or in setting the council tax can only be challenged by an application for judicial review, with either the Secretary of State or any other person with sufficient interest (which potentially could include a council taxpayer) able to apply.

Duty to provide services
However, budget set or not, the council has a legal duty to provide a range of statutory services and these duties are not absolved if the budget is set late. Most councils must also consider the impact on precepting authorities such as the Fire Service and the Police, to whom the council will have to pay the monies due whether or not it has collected them through council tax. Furthermore, a delay in setting the budget may well affect the council's ability to enter into any new agreements unless the budget is agreed as otherwise these would be potentially unlawful as unfunded commitments. Councils also have increasingly important financial and corporate governance reputations to keep strong and the failure to set a council tax, or even informal references to a potential failure to set a council tax, would be likely to have a significant adverse impact on the council's reputation locally and nationally in terms of investor confidence.

If members decide that they will not set the council tax, there are likely to be some liability issues. Members have to abide by their council's Code of Conduct and, as members have an active duty to ensure that the council sets a lawful budget, voting against those proposals repeatedly knowing that the result will be no lawful budget is almost certainly incompatible with their obligations under the Code as it is bound to bring the council into disrepute. Furthermore, although surcharge has long since been abolished, if a councillor's wilful misconduct in refusing to set the budget is found to have caused a financial loss to the council they may, be liable to make good such loss. To get such a finding, it would have to be proved that the members were acting deliberately or recklessly and in a way which involved persistent failure to facilitate the setting of a lawful budget.

... (lots more info)

Guavanaut posted:

I bet if you renamed 'disestablishmentarianism' to 'privatizing the CofE' you could get the tories to support it in an instant, it's pretty funny that one of the few Crown enterprises they haven't scrapped or sold off is the one that allows a bunch of old men to wander around the upper house scuppering all their plans.

Tesseraction posted:

Necrothatcher posted:

The... uh.. what's going on with Kate?

keep punching joe posted:

Man mephedrone was great, what a time to be alive.

Edit : terrible snype 23 is a sacred number hail eris, all hail dischordia.

quote:

The LARD Network is one of the first websites on the Internet. It has been continuously online since 1994, before WIFI, before Google, before smartphones, maybe before you were born. Other sites come and go (mp3.com, hotbot, webvan, altavista, kozmo, excite, pets.com, napster, compusa, geocities, infospace, and many more...), but you can depend on the LARD Network to be around for your great grandchildren to enjoy.

Material here is Copyright (c) 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 by David Lai, and is the sole opinion of David Lai. Permission is hereby granted for any use as long as you can prove to me you gained at least 25 lbs. in the past year.

Mr Teatime posted:

quote:

Three crew members had been killed and at least four injured, including three critically.
The vessel had a crew of 20, comprising one Indian, four Vietnamese and 15 Filipino nationals.
Three armed guards - two from Sri Lanka and one from Nepal - were also on board.